Chris Christie, not Rubio, best bet in 2016 for GOP

12:55 PM,
Feb. 20, 2013

Written by

DeWayne Wickham

The GOP's chances of winning the White House in 2016 are linked more closely to the political fortunes of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie than those of Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida.

Rubio is the Tea Party wunderkind who was tapped by Republicans to give the GOP response to President Obama's State of the Union Address. He began his retort with a dusted off reference to his parents' emigration from Cuba to the U.S. During his political ascendancy in Florida, Rubio often talked of how his mom and dad fled that Caribbean island after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.